Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Konate has won a Premier League, an FA Cup, and two League Cups during his time at Anfield
ByAadam PatelFootball reporter- Published43 minutes ago
Ibrahima Konate is set to leave Liverpool for free when his current contract expires in June.
The French defender and Liverpool are likely to part ways due to a gap between Liverpool and Konate's position, in terms of value and wages.
Konate, 27, signed for Liverpool from RB Leipzig in 2021 for £35m on a five-year deal.
Both parties were initially keen to agree a contract renewal, with Konate telling reporters in April after the Merseyside derby that he was "close to an agreement" and there was a "big chance" that he would remain at Anfield next season. Negotiations began in November 2023, though an agreement has proved elusive.
BBC Sport understands that negotiations have stopped and Konate will become the latest player to leave the club on a free this summer after Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah.
Last year, defender Trent Alexander-Arnold joined Real Madrid a month before his contract expired after the Spanish club paid a fee to release him early to play in the Club World Cup.
Captain Virgil van Dijk's current deal expires next summer, while the club failed to sign Marc Guehi on deadline day last September, with the England player joining Manchester City in January.
Liverpool are confident they have sufficient depth at centre-half after recruiting Giovanni Leoni last summer and the arrival of £60m Jeremy Jacquet, 20, this summer.
But it does leave Van Dijk, 34, as their only experienced central defender alongside Joe Gomez, 29.
Frenchman Jacquet, who turns 21 in July, played 21 games for Rennes last season but missed the last four months with a shoulder injury.
Leoni, 19, was ruled out for a year after after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in September, a month after joining the Reds from Parma for a fee of £26m plus add-ons.
The belief within Liverpool is that other areas - like replacing Mohamed Salah and filling the gap after Hugo Ekitike's injury - are priorities, rather than agreeing to an expensive renewal for Konate.
Leaving Anfield on a free
In the modern era Liverpool have allowed several players to leave the club without earning a fee.
Influential forward Roberto Firmino left the club on a free in 2023 after manager Jurgen Klopp said he wanted him to stay.
Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum featured in every Premier League match among 51 appearances during his final season for Liverpool before becoming a free agent in the summer of 2021.
Liverpool opted not to renew the contracts of Emre Can, Adam Lallana and James Milner who all left without Merseyside without earning the club a fee.
Naby Keita, Divock Origi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all also left on a free.
Analysis - A mess on both sides
Konate sounded as confident as ever when he told us in April that there was a "big chance" he would be at Anfield next season.
In fact, he even asked reporters to speak to Liverpool's sporting director Richard Hughes, implying that he always wanted to stay at Liverpool, despite rumours linking him with a move to Real Madrid earlier in the season.
"I'm waiting to sort the contract, but when everything is sorted, you will have to ask Richard what I said to him in September, November and he's going to say something to make everyone quiet," Konate said at the time.
Over the last few months, Arne Slot even described Konate as "vital" and admitted that Liverpool would not be in talks for a new deal if they didn't want Konate to stay.
Now it looks like that contact will not be sorted and Konate will be on his way out of Anfield without even saying goodbye - like Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson.
In truth, it is a mess on both sides of the equation. For Liverpool, this is yet another experienced campaigner leaving on a free transfer. Such a situation should have been sorted last summer, in order to get a fee for Konate or at the latest by the January window.
At 27, Konate is still in the prime of his career and though the options aren't clear at the moment, eyes will light up around the world at getting a centre-half of his calibre for free. Any decision as to his next club may come after the World Cup.
However, that will come down to an agreement on wages, with the simple matter that Konate wants a lot more money than Liverpool value him at. It leaves the Frenchman in a precarious position and unable to stay at the club that he said he truly wanted to stay at.
Liverpool believe that any agreement cannot come at the cost of the clubs financial equilibrium nor undermine the allocation of resources within the playing squad. And so it looks like that unlike Salah and Robertson last week, Konate will quietly exit through the back door.
Liverpool's season to forget may have finished last week but the problems continue for Slot and co.
